Reggie Watts

Comedian / Rapper

Born: 23 March 1972

Birthplace: Germany

Best known as:

The beat-boxing comic with the giant afro

Name at birth: Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts

Reggie Watts is a beat-boxing improvisational comedian best-known for his appearances on the talk shows of Jimmy Fallon and Conan O'Brien and for internet videos like "F*** S*** Stack." Raised mostly in Great Falls, Montana, Reggie Watts moved to Seattle in 1990 to study music. Instead he ended up being the frontman for a number of bands, most notably Maktub, beginning in 1996. After recording five albums over eight years, Watts moved to New York in 2004 to work on a solo career in comedy. After years of making videos and performing in clubs and at music festivals, Watts was tapped to tour with Conan O'Brien's 2010 The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour. Since then he's been a regular presence on cable TV -- especially on Comedy Central -- and a creator of viral videos. Known for his extra-large afro and stream-of-consciousness patter, Watts is a one-man band, just him and an audio loop machine, making up songs on the spot that are by turns soulful and rambunctious. He had his first cable TV special in 2010, and his second, 2012's Reggie Watts: A Live in Central Park, was turned into a DVD and CD. He began hosting a comedy talk show on IFC television in 2012 called Comedy Bang! Bang!

Extra credit:

Reggie Watts spent the first few years of his life in Europe, where his father was stationed with the U.S. military... His mother is French and his father is African-American... Reggie Watts does the music for the Louis C.K. series Louie.